How two former employees are driving Mali’s hardball talks with Barric..

Mali’s military-led government, which in December seized three metric tons of gold from Barrick worth about $245 million, has given the miner until Saturday at midnight to respond to its demands, It wants Barrick to pay 125 billion CFA francs ($199 million) in back taxes, according to a source familiar with the situation…

If a deal is finalised, Mali would return the seized gold and release four Barrick executives detained since late November, the source said, Barrick has publicly rejected the charges against its employees, without specifying what they are. According to a court document reviewed by Reuters, they include money laundering and financing of terrorism.

The dispute has ramifications for global miners and other foreign investors who poured billions of dollars into West Africa and are now forced to play by a new set of rules as the military governments of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso seek a bigger share of mining revenues. The two Toures are among a small group of key players on the Malian side, which also includes Predident Assimi Goita and Minister of Finance and Economy Alousseini Sanou, according to source familiar with the matter.

The Officials, while they share a surname, are not related, Samba Toure, the older by decades, was the more senior of the two at Randgold, where he was West Africa operations director. Mamou was underground manager for the Loulo mine.

While other Western miners – including Canada’s B2Gold, Allied Gold and Australia’s Resoluteopens new tab – have struck deals with Mali in recent months, Barrick’s negotiations have dragged on acrimoniously, the governments in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are using legal disputes, arrests and nationalisations, as well as threats to deepen their ties with Russia, to assert greater control over their gold and uranium wealth.